OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY

rights laws enforced by OCR—race, color, national origin, sex, and disability—to
include such bases as sexual orientation and religion. While this letter concerns
your legal obligations under the laws enforced by OCR, other federal, state, and local laws impose additional
obligations on schools.7
And, of course, even when bullying or harassment is not a civil rights violation,
schools should still seek to prevent it in order to protect students from the
physical and emotional harms that it may cause.

Harassing conduct may take many forms, including verbal acts and name-calling;
graphic and written statements, which may include use of cell phones or the
Internet; or other conduct that may be physically threatening, harmful, or
humiliating. Harassment does not have to include intent to harm, be directed
at a specific target, or involve repeated incidents. Harassment creates a
hostile environment when the conduct is sufficiently severe, pervasive, or
persistent so as to interfere with or limit a student’s ability to participate
in or benefit from the services, activities, or opportunities offered by a
school. When such harassment is based on race, color, national origin, sex,
or disability, it violates the civil rights laws that OCR enforces.8

A school is responsible for addressing harassment incidents about which it
knows or reasonably should have known.9
In some situations, harassment may be in plain sight, widespread, or well-known
to students and staff, such as harassment occurring in hallways, during academic
or physical education classes, during extracurricular activities, at recess,
on a school bus, or through graffiti in public areas. In these cases, the
obvious signs of the harassment are sufficient to put the school on notice.
In other situations, the school may become aware of misconduct, triggering
an investigation that could lead to the discovery of additional incidents that,
taken together, may constitute a hostile environment. In all cases, schools
should have well-publicized policies prohibiting harassment and procedures
for reporting and resolving complaints that will alert the school to incidents
of harassment.10

When responding to harassment, a school must take immediate and appropriate
action to investigate or otherwise determine what occurred. The specific steps
in a school’s investigation will vary depending upon the nature of the allegations,
the source of the complaint, the age of the student or students involved, the
size and administrative structure of the school, and other factors. In all
cases, however, the inquiry should be prompt, thorough, and impartial.

If an investigation reveals that discriminatory harassment has occurred, a school
must take prompt and effective steps reasonably calculated to end the harassment,
eliminate any hostile

7 For instance,
the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has jurisdiction over Title IV of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000c (Title IV), which prohibits
discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, or national
origin by public elementary and secondary schools and public institutions
of higher learning. State laws also provide additional civil rights protections,
so districts should review these statutes to determine what protections
they afford (e.g., some state laws specifically prohibit discrimination
on the basis of sexual orientation).8 Some conduct
alleged to be harassment may implicate the First Amendment rights to free
speech or expression. For more information on the First Amendment’s application
to harassment, see the discussions in OCR’s Dear Colleague Letter: First
Amendment (July 28, 2003), available athttp://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/firstamend.html,
and OCR’s Revised Sexual Harassment Guidance: Harassment of Students
by School Employees, Other Students, or Third Parties (Jan. 19, 2001)
(Sexual Harassment Guidance), available athttp://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/shguide.html.9 A school has
notice of harassment if a responsible employee knew, or in the exercise
of reasonable care should have known, about the harassment. For a discussion
of what a “responsible employee” is, see OCR’s Sexual Harassment Guidance.10 Districts must
adopt and publish grievance procedures providing for prompt and equitable
resolution of student and employee sex and disability discrimination complaints,
and must notify students, parents, employees, applicants, and other interested
parties that the district does not discriminate on the basis of sex or
disability. See 28 C.F.R. § 35.106; 28 C.F.R. § 35.107(b); 34
C.F.R. § 104.7(b); 34 C.F.R. § 104.8; 34 C.F.R. § 106.8(b); 34 C.F.R. § 106.9.